Friday, August 5, 2011

Calgary 70.3 Race Report

Okay, here it is! I was waiting for the race photos to be posted online to write the race report, but I have no idea when they will be... and I don't want to forget all the nitty-gritty details of this race!

Calgary 70.3 states on their website that they've got one of the most beautiful courses in North America. It's true in that the lake is gorgeous, the bike course has a nice (albeit distant) view of the Rockies, and the run is around a very lush reservoir. Not complaining here!! I only like to race if it is beautiful.

Pre-race: I had made a friend the day before, so I knew that I had a ride back from T2 to T1 (the bike is point-to-point). Rather than drive to T2 in the early AM to catch the bus back to T1, I just drove to T1 knowing I'd have a lift back. More sleep? Awesome! From 10pm to 4am, I slept like a rock. Once I woke up, I was 100% alert. It was super awesome!! Had the usual breakfast, drove to the race site, did all the pre-race junk, and watched the pros, then the 2 male waves go off. We females were the 4th wave at 6:45am.

Swim: My goal was to break 31' and possibly break 30'. I have the swim ability to do so, now it's about executing that good quality swim in a race. Did I do it? Noooooo: 35:38. Shameful. But I did swim hard, the current simply kept sweeping me out far left. It was incredibly frustrating.
35:38 @ 1:53/100m -- 5/14 F18-24, 94/527 OA, 32/157 Women

T1: 4:16. You'd think that would mean I had a disastrous T1, but the way T1 was set up, I actually went through it really quickly.
4:16 -- 25/157 Women, 2/14 F18-24

Bike: The race website states that the bike course is just over 94kms, starting at Ghost Lake and ending near the Glenmore Reservoir. I started the ride off cold and worried I would end up on the run with frozen feet (which is what happened last November in the South Island, New Zealand half-ironman I did). However, the day slowly started to warm up and I actually had an awesome ride. I took in about 130cal/hr -- people say this is low and I agree that I should have taken in maybe 160cal/hr... but remember that 1. I am small and 2. I've been training my body for a long time now to utilize a greater % of fuel from fat rather than carbs. In long training rides, I hardly ever consume more than 175cal/hr, usually hovering around the 150cal/hr mark. I neeeeever get GI distress come run time, so this metabolic efficiency training is awesome and totally paying off!! (And trust me... I know when I am bonking and I don't with these calorie consumption rates)
3:01:29, 94kms @ 31.1km/hr --- 3/14 F18-24, 269/527 OA, 52/157 Women

T2: 1:17. Again, you'd think T2 was a mess because it was longer than 1 minute. But I motored through it and had a good T2 with respect to the field.
1:17 --- 12/157 Women, 2/14 F18-24

Run: Shit starts to hit the fan. The course is an out-and-back and slightly net downhill with the rollers on the way out, and then uphill with "Heartbreak Hill" on the way back. Way out: 55:16. Not exactly impressive for 10.5km, but I was dealing with the heat well, and I was running past a lot of people, and just chugging up the hills when I needed to. Way back: 1:00:09. Disgustingly poor back half. What happened? I've switched bikes recently (think like 2 weeks ago), and although it's an awesome bike, my body is noooooot used to the position so when I got to the run, a lot of my muscles and core in particular were tired. I started to get side stitches (which, for me, I KNOW is because of tired core muscles). Ah well, that's what I get for switching bikes so soon before a race. Nevertheless, I kept the smile on my face, kept on running and passed upward of 100 people, only getting passed twice.
1:56:41, @ 5:32/km (poor!) -- 4/14 F18-24, 152/527 OA, 29/157 Women